SOPA/PIPA and the Wikipedia Blackout

We would like to ENCOURAGE all INFOdocket readers to CONTACT their representatives in Congress and let them know that SOPA/PIPA is bad legislation.

This post has articles and links to learn more about SOPA/PIPA. Those of you outside of the U.S. might want to take a look at this petition to the U.S. State Department.

We wrestled with the topic but decided to remain online and posting today. This might change if future blackouts take place. We fully support those sites who decided to go dark today.

Wikipedia Blackout

Taking a site, especially a large web site, offline is challenging.

However, of the largest and most well-known sites to “go dark” today, the English language version of Wikipedia could have done a better job in their effort.

Yes, Wikipedia’s involvement earned the black out a lot of press attention in the run-up to today’s events but to learn that some versions of Wikipedia (via the Wikipedia.org domain) are still available reduces the overall effectiveness of the protest and is disappointing.

2. If JavaScript is turned off Wikipedia.org, the Wikipedia SOPA blackout page disappears and the site is accessible. This was mentioned in several places including Cleveland.com.

3. We’ve learned that the Simple English version of Wikipedia is available today.

4. Interesting and surprising. Wikia, a commercial site, co-founded by Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales (he has also taken his personal site dark) IS ONLINE and available today. The site does have a banner with informative material about SOPA if clicked.

About INFOdocket

1. INFOdocket is compiled and edited by Gary Price and Shirl Kennedy. The site is free to access.

2. Before launching INFOdocket, Price and Kennedy were the founders and senior editors at ResourceShelf and DocuTicker for 10 years

3. The site is updated as often as possible during the week and at least once a day on the weekends.

4. FullTextReports.com is the sister site of INFOdocket. There you'll find direct access to new and free full text reports from think tanks, governments around the world, research institutes, academia, as well as from other sources.

5. FullTextReports is not DocuTicker and INFOdocket is not ResourceShelf. Gary and Shirl are no longer contributors to either of those sites.